Here's mine:

1. Purple Rain - Goes without saying

2. 1999 - Prince's first commercial crossover (not that that means its good) but this album is a great mix of fun/sex/paranoia. There are great party anthems "1999" and "DMSR" they make me feel good.

3. Sign "O" the Times - great body of work mixture of hip-hop, rock, pop, Christian, and jazz.

4. The Gold Experience - This needs to be back in print and unfortunately didn't get the marketing it deserved. THIS IS A GREAT ALBUM!

5. Musicology - His comeback album

Around The World In A day

Lotusflow3r

Gold Experience

Rainbow Children

Purple Rain

Sign of the Times

Purple Rain

1999

Gold Experience

LotusFlower Package

1. 1999

2. Parade

3. Around the World in a Day

4. Lovesexy

5. Controversy

1. Sign O' the Times

2. Purple Rain

3. Diamonds and Pearls

4. Dirty Mind

5. 1999/Parade

6. Gold/TRC

Why: Sign is Prince's second most consistent album song wise however, the songs on that album are much more unique and cover a much wider range than Purple Rain.

Purple Rain. Purple Rain is a great album that Prince fans often ignore but when u look at the track listing u realize that every song on the album is amazing.

Diamonds and Pearls.: There are so many great songs on this album and this album truley signifies a new direction for Prince. It is an album that many non Prince fans can get into with such easily enjoyable songs such as gett off, cream, and Diamonds and Pearls.

Dirty mind: This album is intresting because Prince is able to take such an inoccent sounding music such as pop disco and turn into something truley very dark and sexual. Songs like head, and uptown are probably the most catchy songs he has every written.

1999: Album i used to be a fan of because i hated the song 1999 which to me is alright but dmsr, little red corvette, lady cab drive make up for it. Something in the water does not compute is perphahps prince's weirdest song but sounds amazing .

Parade: If u took side 2 of the album, Mountains, Kiss, Anotherwateverhead, Sometimes it snows in april, and mountains. Took off do u lie and switched it with girls and boys this wouled be Prince's best album perphaps. Side one of the album is mostley filler or isn't very noteworthy and kinda detracts from side 2. But nonethe less a great album.

[Edited 12/31/12 13:06pm]

Sign O the Times-Is the album that shows a snap shot of Prince's musical landscape. In a nut shell, this album covers Prince's styles of music brilliantly.

Purple Rain-The rock and pop album with brilliant songs.

1999-R&B at it's best via the Minneapolis sound.

Dirty Mind- The rock indie slash pop sexual raw energy album who's not going to like that?

Controversy-R&B that set us up for the 1999 album

6(Honorable mention for Parade.)

1 sign of the times

2 purple rain

3 parade

4 1999

5 the gold experience

.

[Edited 12/31/12 14:00pm]

In no particular order... here's my list:

1) Purple Rain

(Film and movie... Awesome!)

2) Sign "O" The Times

( I was a kid when this was released. I remember going 2 the movie theatre, watching this with my older sisters in amazement. I ordered this on DVD in good quality recently. Can't wait 4 an official release, tho. I consider this album a masterpiece. 2 be honest... I don't think that it's a song on there that I dis-like. Funk, pop, rock, etc. I love it)

3) Love Symbol Album/ O( >

(In my opinon, I liked the vibe of this album. Micheal Bland was solid on the drums as well. "Love 2 the 9's" , "The Morning Papers", "Sexy M.F", etc. Those are a few stand-out tracks)

4) The Gold Experience

(The album prove that he could do it all... once again. That's when I dawned on me that he was actually my favorite artist. I let a lot of friends in my circle hear this album... and they have been listening 2 him ever ever since that day.)

5) Emancipation

(All 3 discs proves that he was focused. I liked the sound and theme of this album. I enjoyed the Jam of the Year concert as well. I also felt good 2 hear him on urban/hip hop radio at the time. "Somebody's Somebody" was in heavy rotation where I was at. There's other cuts too that just shows he wanted 2 craft a "feel-good" album)

Purple Rain

ATWIAD

Parade

SOTT

Lovesexy

1) 1999

2) Dirty Mind

3) Sign 'O The Times

4) Controversy

5) Lovesexy

Chaos and Disorder

Lotusflower

The Gold Experience

symbol album

Diamonds and Pearls

Not necessarily my top five favourite albums, but I believe Prince's top 5 albums overall to be (in no particular order):

• Purple Rain - albums don't get much more perfect than this. Listen to it again, and imagine you're hearing it for the first time.
• Sign o' the Times - yes it's just an album, but it's bigger than that... it's an art exhibition. Walk from room to room, look at the paintings...
• 1999 - an intimate peek into the mind of a very young American man who really, really, really wants to be a star, and who's not convinced he'll completely get there, but goddamnit, he's at least gonna make a mark on his way out.
• Parade - but he did get there. And this is the fruit of those efforts.
• Dirty Mind - the best (and probably only) album you kept in your underwear drawer. Maybe not something you'd blast on your boombox, but a sacred, sexy pact between artist and listener...

I believe these are all important. No numerical rating involved here.

1. 1985 - Around The World In A Day - Listened to himself & created from the <3 not the wallet.
2. 1980 - Dirty Mind - Proved Warners wrong.
3. 1987 - Sign "O" The Times - Stood alone without the Revolution & delivered 1 of his best ever.
4. 1983 - 1999 - Proved everybody wrong
5. 1984 - Purple Rain - World domination.

1986 - Parade & 1988 - Lovesexy are close runner ups.

1999 - took the punk thing he was tinkering with, fused it with pop, electronica, soul and industrial sounds and created a masterwork.

Purple Rain - the songs. the songs are unforgettable.

Parade - the first pop artist to to confuse and dazzle at the same time

SOTT - how in the world can one person create this? so many classics. 90's neo soul was born in 1987.

Emancipation - BUT: condensed down into a SINGLE disc. Unfortunately, there are some gems that will never make it past obscurity: the love we make, in this bed i scream, joint 2 joint, slave.. i mean.. you have an album with this much great material... and you put out betcha by golly wow as the first single? that is a serious WTF moment in prince history!

1. SOTT - Just too many classic songs and his most inventive and innovative sounds ever.

2. 1999 - Again ground breaking and legendary jams, great pop, rock, funk, dance and some great erotic lyrics with drum machines and riffs, plus he's so hungry, just great.

3. Parade - Another fine album with a great happy, lite and psychedelic sound with bad ass funk jams and thoughtful piano pieces. Just a whole of lot of fun.

4. Dirty Mind - the raw and playful funk, sex libido and powerful jams make this stuff the stuff of legends and following. Prince at his hungriest and most focussed and also one of the most sexually explicit records ever made that does not sound smutty, but very sleazy. Plus its off the funk o meter.

5. Gold Experience, his finest of the 90s period, mature and quality song writing, catchy jams and some amazing guitar parts, bass and drumming. Plus if you include the Days of Wild you know it belongs here.

Then

Purple Rain (Heard it a gajillion times, but that does not mean its not great, just over appreciated)

3121 His tightest 2000s album, great music

Controversy - Another great record the bridge between Dirty Mind and 1999

Around the World in a day - again a classic album, nothing like Purple Rain but some standout songs, the first 4 tracks are his strongest ever.

MPLsOUND - Surprisingly good

Best unofficial release

Dream Factory (Mostly July 18 1986 pressings)

[Edited 1/1/13 2:11am]

my turn:

01. Purple Rain (10)
02. Sign "O" The Times (10)
03. 1999 (10)
04. Lovesexy (10)
05. Parade (10)
06. Around The World In A Day (10)
07. The Gold Experience (10)
08. Dirty Mind (10)
09. Controversy (9.5)
10. Diamonds & Pearls (9) (I just looove the big singles..!)
11. Love Symbol Album (9)
12. Come (9)
13. Black Album (9)
14. The Rainbow Children (9)
15. Graffiti Bridge (8)
16. Prince (8)
17. For You (8)
18. Batman (8)
19. Crystal Ball (8)
20. Emancipation (8)

those albums: 1 to 5 are pure class, no weak tracks.

the sound on those albums are from another world.

Dirty Mind

1999

Purple Rain

Parade

Sign 'O The Times

[Honorable Mention (since the topic is only 5)]: The Gold Experience

Looking at these lists a pattern emerges.

Sign o the Times is probably the most favourite, but only by a slim margin, next its probably 1999 and close behind Purple rain.

Then Parade, TGE and Dirty Mind are next.

There's also a lot of love for Lovesexy ATWIAD and Controversy.

Some people are also really propping Lotusflow3r, Emancipation and D and P, so its great to see this range.

Another way to judge the quality of a release, is to look at out takes from the albums era. We do not need to ,mention the superb out takes from the Parade/SOTT era with Camille, Dream Factory and Crystal ball outtakes and then the high quality of his 1999 era unreleased songs like Xtraloveable, lust u always and moonbeam levels.

And then of course the best single out take from the time of Purple Rain - Electric Intercourse

Just adding my lousy dime.

this used to be quite an easy question for me to answer but it's getting

more and more difficult as time goes by.

01. Parade

02. Sign o the Times

and then i'm stuck. there's too many great albums fighting over those

remaining 3 positions.

i could name you 10 albums that i think are absolutely superb but the

ranking of those albums against one another is near impossible.

This is not an easy question as I am a fan of all his work. But the list below is my best shot if I had to put 5 in order.

1. Gold Experience

2. Rainbow Children

3. Sign O' The Times

4. Purple Rain

5. LotusFlo3er / MPLSound

PimpandCircumstance said:

Here's mine:

1. Purple Rain - Goes without saying

2. 1999 - Prince's first commercial crossover (not that that means its good) but this album is a great mix of fun/sex/paranoia. There are great party anthems "1999" and "DMSR" they make me feel good.

3. Sign "O" the Times - great body of work mixture of hip-hop, rock, pop, Christian, and jazz.

4. The Gold Experience - This needs to be back in print and unfortunately didn't get the marketing it deserved. THIS IS A GREAT ALBUM!

5. Musicology - His comeback album

I am surprised:

you choose to have Musicology over:

Parade,

Lovesexy

Around The World In A Day

wow, do you really love Musicology that much.

Different tastes.. None of his post-Warner-albums makes my Top 20.

(Except/ only TRC).

Favourite five, critically acclaimed five or five best sellers wordlwide? Can you clarify your question please?

Favourite five for me would be... Parade, Lovesexy, Purple Rain, D&P and SotT. Maybe. Only have two that I really care for as complete albums and those are Parade and Lovesexy.

Critically I would say that 1999, Lovesexy, SotT, AtWiaD and D&P were his top.

As for total sales, I'm not sure but I'd say Purple Rain takes some beating.

Parade - beautiful orchestration that takes you there.

Lovesexy - so interesting to listen to. So out there and strange with so much going on.

Purple Rain - well because it's Purple Rain. Love it or hate it it was his highest commercial point.

D&P - so utterly commercial but so utterly different to many other artists. Hard to ignore this album.

SotT - just look at the ability of his songwriting on this album. Pure genius. Never topped.

[Edited 1/3/13 5:08am]

Parade {Best revolution work. Strange sounds, nice Fisher music. A lot of non-commercial tunes.

The truth {Prince making something different.

N.E.W.S. {Prince making something different, again.

O-+> {the '90 summa

The war {Best npg work. A non-commercial speach build on a grooving jam

1. The Gold Experience

2. 1999

3. Parade

Can't get any further than that. There are too many albums competing here.

1. Purple Rain

2. Sign O' The Times

3. Lovesexy

4. 1999

5. Controversy

1. Dirty Mind

2. Sign O the times

3. Controversy

4. Around the world in a day

5. 1999

The Rainbow Children

Dirty Mind

Sign O' The Times

Parade

The Dawn 4:1

1-Lovesexy

the day it was released they had to send me home from work so I could go listen to it - then the tour, which I saw twice - amazing - the only album where I don't skip over any songs

2-Sign O The Times

brilliant mix of styles showing what a great song writer and musician he was and is

3-Lotusflower

solid collection and , IMO, daring. Best of the 00's, Colonized Mind rates up there with Anna Stesia to me (even though both have some silly lyrics )

4-Emancipation

while it should have been better - it is a true musical odyssey and a milestone. I can forgive 'we gets up' because we have 'the love we make'

5-Around The World In A Day

a crazy followup to Purple Rain - set the standard for him to be as nuts as he is. from the weirdness of the title track to the gospel of 'the ladder' - classic

honorable mention:

Come

The Love Symbol Album

Parade

Purple Rain

Controversy

This is the list that I've compiled for now but I'm sure that my choices will change as they so regularly do.

5. The Gold Experience
4. Dirty Mind
3. Purple Rain
2. 1999
1. Around The World In A Day

There are so many Prince albums that I love and I simply couldn't fit them all into a list of five. So I have to mention these albums, which could have easily been in my top five depending on my mood: Sign O' The Times, Parade, Lovesexy, The Rainbow Children and LOtUSFLOW3R:

1. 1999 - Very futuristic and funky. It feels like you've been transported to a freezing cold, dark, future with flying cars, vacationing on other planets, and funk ruled the universe.

2. Dirty Mind - A nasty, kinky funky album where anything goes sexually. Another great thing is every single track is sung in that sassy falsetto that lets you know from the very first listen, that this is Prince.

3. Controversy - A continuation of Dirty Mind with a few more futuristic elements in it which would eventually explode full force the next year on 1999.

4. Purple Rain - 1999 with more rock. A freezing cold album that sounds just as cold as the place it's artist came from.

5. Prince - My first exposure to Prince and I love it. Funk, rock, disco, slow jams and every single track sung in that sassy signature falsetto. I love the in your face gay feel of that entire era of Prince also. The bitch was fish and flaunting.